Microsoft Announces The Xbox One X

Microsoft used its E3 2017 press conference to announce the Xbox One X, its new game console previously dubbed ‘Project Scorpio’. The machine is set for release on November 7th at a price point of $499.99.

This is NOT being marketed as a new generation console, rather it’s similar to the PS4 Pro in that it’s a premium version of the existing Xbox One console – all Xbox One games will be compatible with it and there will be no Xbox One X-only exclusives. Also, all old Xbox One peripherals, accessories, and data will also be compatible.

The smallest and most powerful console that Microsoft has made and said to boast 40% more power than any other console, the hardware is reportedly capable of 6 teraflops with 326GB/s, has an 8-core custom AMD Jaguar CPU at 2.3Ghz, a vapor chamber for the cooling to ensure the CPU and GPU run smooth and quietly, and 12Gb GDDR5 RAM with 9Gb of that available for gaming.

In more basic terms, the machine is powerful enough to run native 4K, HDR and 60fps gaming. If you don’t have a 4K HDR TV, which most TVs sold before 2-3 years ago aren’t, there’ll still be visual benefits through ‘supersampling’.

Even so, to achieve this there will likely be some compromises in other areas for certain games. When a game like Ghost Recon Wildlands can’t run at 4K/60 with everything on ‘Ultra’ on a PC more than twice as powerful, expect a few titles to have some advanced options lowered to ‘medium’ or turned off altogether.

Microsoft reportedly has more than 40 titles planned for release across the Xbox consoles, with 22 of those games being Xbox exclusives. Full specs are up at Xbox.com.